


we'll meet again (don't know where, don't know when)

by JustAnotherWriterChica



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Death, F/M, Grief, Spirit World, Sukka, listen if they won't tell us how these two died, sorry if this is sad, then I'll do it myself, they just make me feel a LOT
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:27:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28233153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAnotherWriterChica/pseuds/JustAnotherWriterChica
Summary: Inspired by the song "We'll Meet Again" by Vera Lynn.With Suki's dying breath she makes a promise to Sokka. Years later as Sokka lays in the snow, succumbing to mortal injuries, a familiar face comes back to make good on her promise.
Relationships: Sokka/Suki (Avatar)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23





	we'll meet again (don't know where, don't know when)

**Author's Note:**

> hello! I wrote this fic for two reasons: 1) I needed a creative break from the other fic that I've been working (sorry if you've been waiting on an update for that one, it is coming, I promise) and B) I saw a sad tiktok of Sukka with this song playing in the background and just had to write it.
> 
> I hope that you all enjoy!

Suki knew that her time on this earth was up the moment she saw the arrowhead poke through her armor.

Her mind blanked as she stared down at the thin wooden shaft protruding from her chest. It wasn’t anything special, just a rickety arrow some thug had probably whittled in his spare time. This little piece of wood was entirely insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe, aside from the fact that it had pierced the armor that Suki had trusted to protect her for the last three decades.

The roar of the fight around her quieted in Suki’s ears as she dropped to a knee, watching as a crimson stream trickled into her hand.

Funny, she’d seen herself bleed hundreds of time, but Suki had never felt so at peace with the sight. Maybe it was the years of exhaustion finally setting in.

The scarlet blood began to trail down her stomach and the last of her strength gave out. With a startled grunt, Suki fell backwards and collided with the tall blades of grass underfoot. Her eyes lifted to the evening sky overhead, a canvas painted in burning oranges, pinks, and purples as the summer sun set on the horizon.

She couldn’t imagine a more beautiful place to take her last breath.

Suki laid alone on the ground for some time, perhaps ten seconds or maybe ten minutes, she couldn’t be sure, before she heard her name being called. There was pain in that voice that she knew so well, an urgency that broke through her hazy mind. That sweet, sure voice that she had spent over half of her life loving.

“Sokka,” she feebly called back. Her voice caught in the back of her throat and came as little more than a whisper, but that didn’t matter. He was by her side a moment later, panicked eyes roving her body as he pressed his hands to her wound, trying to apply pressure to the lost cause.

“Okay, it’s okay. You’ve had worse than this and walked away from it. You’re going to be alright, Suki, I promise I can fix this.”

Those frightened eyes were still casting about everywhere, searching for some sliver of hope to grasp at and refusing to watch as the color drained from his wife’s face. He was scared. He didn’t want to face what they both knew came next. Suki wished more than anything that she could steal that pain away from him, but the damage had already been done.

One gloved hand raised to cup his face, tugging at his chin until she could look him in the eye. “I love you, Sokka. Don’t be afraid. I’m not.”

“I’m not scared,” Sokka replied with a shaky breath. “Because you’re not going to die on me. We’re going to get you help and then we’re going to go home an-and sleep for a week. And ignore everyone! Maybe we can take a vacation, how does that sound? We haven’t been to Omashu in a while. I can show you this secret tunnel nearby where…”

As he continued to rattle off plans in a futile attempt to bribe her into staying alive, the pressure on her wound increased to the point that genuine pain started to sneak back through her adrenaline induced haze. She couldn’t have that, not if she was going to be able to say everything she wanted.

With a gentle pull, Suki removed one of her husband’s hands from her armor and trapped it in her grasp. She fixed him with a gentle smile, the kind she usually saved for moonlit dances in their garden and sailing through familiar Southern waters. “It’s time, Sokka.”

“Please, Suki, just fight for a little longer.” It broke her heart to hear the tremble in his voice, to know that she was the cause of such anguish. “Stay with me.”

“Hey, hey, look at me.” She waited until those teary blue eyes found her gaze. “We will meet again. I don’t know where, I don’t know when, but I know we will. Maybe it’ll be in the spirit world, on some wonderfully sunny day, and you can tell me about everything I missed.

“Pro-promise me that you won’t let this break you. You’re too young and beautiful to go on that way, I-I won’t have you living as some depressed widower for the rest of your days. Do you hear me?”

She squeezed, albeit weakly, at his hand and he nodded in understanding. Tears streaked down his cheeks but he remained silent, determined to give Suki her dying words without argument.

“Just keep smiling through like you always do, things will get better some day.” Suki grimaced as a wave of pain rolled through her entire body but she gritted her teeth. She was going to say her piece, damnit. “We’ve had a good life together haven’t we?”

“The best.”

“Yeah, it was the best. I wouldn’t have changed a thing.” Her hand reached out to his face again but her fading strength caused her to fall short. Sokka scooped up her gloved hand, removing the garb so that he could press a kiss to her bruised knuckles. “Thank you for making my life an adventure. We’ll meet again, Sokka, someday.”

“Someday.” Sokka whispered the promise into her palm, pressing another kiss to her chilling skin. “I love you, Suki.”

She tried to echo the sentiment to her partner, but she found that her mouth was unable to form words any longer. Her breath rattled in her chest as she stared up at the man that had loved her with his entire being. The person she would’ve moved heaven and earth for. The one she was leaving too early.

They would meet again.

And it was that thought that gave Suki her last comfort as she slipped away.

Sokka had felt cold before, had known it with every fiber of his being. He had spent his formative years ice fishing and penguin sledding, after all. But yet, he had never felt anything like this.

This kind of cold came with the dread of knowing that he had reached the end of the line.

There was no one there to tell him that he was beyond repair, but you didn’t fight as many battles as Sokka had without learning what a dying man looked like. Gashes and burns littered his aging body, blood was leaking out of a large wound on his stomach, and he was finding it harder and harder to take deep breaths.

None of that mattered now. Sokka had kept his promise to Aang. Even though they’d gotten the better of him, the Red Lotus would soon be captured and the next Avatar would be safe.

Sokka had done his duty and now, he was exhausted. As the fight fled from his body, he contemplated all the things that had worn him down over the last couple years. He was tired of being in charge and shouldering such heavy responsibilities. He was tired of running around and trying to protect the world from every rising evil, even though the next generation was beginning to carry most of that burden.

He was tired of… being.

As the snow began to seep through his clothes, Sokka let his eyes flutter shut, content to wait for whatever came next. That’s when he heard a voice. A voice that, by all accounts, should not be here right now.

“Hm, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look such a mess. Which is saying something considering the amount of times you’ve been covered in Appa’s saliva.”

His eyes sprung open in response to the familiar timbre, jaw dropping open in shock as he gazed at the vision before him. That’s what she was, a true vision. Suki was kneeling beside him in the snow, as though it were entirely ordinary, gazing down with that endearing expression of hers. The one that he’d never been able to say no to.

Spirits, she looked just as young and beautiful as the day of their wedding.

The sun framed this apparition of his wife perfectly, casting a halo around the short auburn hair that had haunted him in crowds for years. He couldn’t walk down a street without his attention being drawn to the color, only to be greeted with a stranger and the phantom sensation of a twisted knife in the gut.

“Suki? You’re here?”

She nodded and a few locks of hair fell into her face. Had he the strength, Sokka would have loved nothing more than to run his fingers through it.

“You’re here… but you’re dead. That can’t mean anything good for me, can it?”

A sigh escaped her lips and she shook her head. “We don’t have to go right now... but it’s coming soon.”

Sokka released a sigh of his own as his suspicions were confirmed. While he was prepared for this, he wasn’t sure that the people he was leaving behind would be. Katara, still grieving the loss of her husband. His nieces and nephews, whose lives he had played such a large role in. His friends who had experienced their fair share of misery over the years.

He thought back on the life he’d lead. He had been a brother, an uncle, a husband, a hero. He’d traveled the world with the Avatar and been one of his closest companions for decades. He’d assisted in the rebuilding and restructuring of entire nations. He had loved and been loved in return. Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe was a man the world would remember.

“Will they be okay after I’m gone?”

“They’re strong Sokka, just like you were when I passed. They’ll get through it and we’ll watch over them to make sure they do. You’ll still be there for them, just as I was there for you.”

Sokka felt something catch in his throat. “You were there?”

“For everything.” A grin like a thousand shining suns spread across her face. He felt a warmth blossom in his chest in knowing that all those nights he’d spent whispering to her about his life, the days he’d wished she was there to support him through a hard decision, and all the quiet moments in between when grief hit him like a meteor striking the ground, she had been there.

He clumsily reached out for her hand but Suki shied away from his touch with a sorrowful gaze. “I won’t take your hand until I know that you’re ready to go, Sokka. You have to tell me when.”

“Does it hurt?” Sokka asked, peering down at the violently crimson snow around him. He’d stopped feeling the pain a while ago, but the sight of his injuries was still enough to make his stomach flip.

A little laugh escaped Suki’s lips, “No, you won’t feel a thing. It’s quite peaceful, actually.”

“And what comes next?”

“Hm,” she cocked her head to the side in contemplation. “Everything. Nothing. The spirit world is kind of hard to explain to someone who hasn’t been. Whatever it is, it’s beautiful, Sokka. It’s a new adventure just waiting for us to take it on.”

The soothing lilt of her voice dug into his chest, balming old wounds that grief had slowly chipped away over the years. Hearing her voice again was like coming home after a decades long journey. Sokka would do anything for more. “An adventure, huh?”

“Our greatest one yet.”

Sokka took one deep breath to steady himself.

A second one to make his decision.

And a third to be sure it was the right one.

“I’m ready.”

This time Suki didn’t hesitate. She must have sensed his resolve because in a matter of seconds she had scooped up his bloody hand and tugged him to his feet.

Suki was right, it was peaceful. All at once, it felt like he was taking his last breath and his first gulp of fresh air. Without needing to look for himself, Sokka knew that he was once again just as young as his wife’s spirit. There was a lightness about him that he hadn’t felt in years, he had been stripped of all his earthly concerns and it felt as though he’d lost the weight of an elephant koi.

He turned to look back at his body but a warm hand caught his shoulder and pulled his attention away from the morbid scene behind them. “Trust me,” Suki rasped, “you want to keep your eyes forward. It’s harder if you look back.”

Even though he was tempted to glance back one last time, the gravity in Suki’s voice kept his gaze fixed steadfastly on the bright sun on the horizon.

They started walking towards the distant tundra, crossing the snowy expanse at a leisurely pace with their entwined hands swinging lazily by their sides. Despite their lack of physical bodies, Sokka could feel the warmth radiating off his partner and smell the faint scent of her favorite jasmine tea, the one that always seemed to linger on her clothes. A kind of love that Sokka had almost forgotten he was capable of spread through his body as he tucked his wife into his side.

They walked in silence for a long time, leaving no tracks in the snow as the world carried on behind them. Eventually Sokka asked, “So where exactly are we going?”

“Don’t worry about it, we’ll get there when we get there.”

That answer didn’t exactly satisfy him, he was a man that needed to know precisely what he was getting into and what to plan for. But for this? For Suki? He could rely on some blind faith. After all, she had kept her promise. They had met again. Their ‘someday’ had finally come and now they were off to adventures unknown, together.

**Author's Note:**

> Sad? yes. But did it hit? I hope so.
> 
> Apologies for any issues with the timeline of things, I am genuinely confused about when these two actually died since there's so little info around it, so I just made it work for me.
> 
> Let me know what you thought!


End file.
